- For information about the protagonist of this game, please see here
Template:Game Infobox
Shank is a 2D side-scrolling action beat 'em up video game developed by Canadian independent studio Klei Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts on August 24, 2010 on the PlayStation Network and August 25, 2010 on Xbox Live. In December 2011, it was re-released as part of the collection Humble Indie Bundle 4.
The game features melee and ranged combat, as well as acrobatic gameplay. Its plot was penned by the God of War series' co-writer Marianne Krawczyk and tells the tale of the ex-hitman Shank's quest for revenge in the single-player campaign, also featuring a prequel story in the form of a cooperative multiplayer campaign for two players.
Shank received mixed reviews, but generally positive reception overall. Critics generally praised the art style of both the gameplay and cutscenes, however some critics felt the game had uneven level design and repetitive gameplay. The game was commercially successful, selling tens of thousands of copies and remaining in the top 20 Xbox Live Arcade games during September 2010. It was followed by a sequel, Shank 2, released in 2012 for the same gaming platforms as the first game.
Story[]
The story of Shank is told in two parts, single-player campaign, and a cooperative campaign, which serves as a prelude to the former. It follows the character Shank (voiced by Marcel Davis) from his time as a hitman in the mob through his revenge on the same mob for the murder of his girlfriend Eva (voiced by Becky Poole).
Cooperative campaign[]
The coop campaign begins in a barber shop,where Shank and Falcone are talking,before getting a call from Cassandra. The two go to Club Stardust to find a bunch of bikers pulling up. Falcone topples their bikes,so Shank and Falcone have to fight their way to Cassandra. When they get there,she is dancing for the crowd of bikers before two big ones,Dusty and Denny,pull her down. Shank and Falcone confront them,then the bikers rush to the rooftop with the hit men following behind. Once they catch up,Denny is holding Cassandra down when the two walk up. Denny calls for Dusty,and the fight begins. After the fight,Dusty is killed by Falcone,while Shank leaves Denny alive for Cassandra,who returns holding a katana. After the two leave the club,they go to watch the Butcher fight in a match Cesar rigged. When the Butcher doesn't take the fall,Falcone stands up to shoot him,but Shank talks him out of it. Thats when Butcher notices them in the stands,and calls for his guys to get them. After they fight through the crowd,they confront the Butcher one last time. Falcone knocks one of his gold teeth out and takes it as payment. The two return to Cesar's villa,where Cesar is waiting. He tasks the two with opposing the priest and members of his congregation. They manage to kidnap the priest,after a run in with the SWAT boss. Once the two bring the priest back,Cesar and his cousin Angelo are waiting. After some chatting,they kill the priest,and Angelo poses as him to keep the murder secret. For Shank and Falcone's last mission,they are tasked with assassinating the mayor. They end up having to fight through the guards to reach the mayor,but just before they catch him,the mayor's bodyguard stops them and the final fight begins.A fter the two kill the bodyguard,Eva wanders in and witnesses everything. Before Shank can explain,the mayor takes Eva hostage with a knife. Just as he backs out,Rudy appears and guns the mayor down. Eva gets splattered in blood and goes into shock as Rudy aims at her to get rid of witnesses. Just as he fires,Shank dives in the way and kills him. After this,the two leave Falcone at the scene and drive away.
Single-player campaign[]
The single player campaign begins as Shank walks into a bar looking for vengeance for Eva, his murdered girlfriend. He asks the bartender where he can find a wrestler named the Butcher. He pulls down a poster of a fight that mentions the Butcher's next fight. As he leaves the bartender reports to Cesar about Shank's return. As Shank makes his way to the wrestling arena, the player learns through flashbacks that the Butcher had kidnapped Eva. Shank arrives at the arena and confronts the Butcher, killing him. He soon realizes that he killed an impersonator, as the dead fighter does not have the same tattoo as the Butcher. He discovers that the Butcher is in another town and travels there.[6]
After a violent train ride Shank arrives at a meat factory, the Butcher's hideout. The Butcher reveals that he killed Eva and taunts Shank, stating that he enjoyed every second of it. Shank and the Butcher fight, with Shank finally choking him with a chain. He then makes his way to Club Stardust, a strip club owned by Cassandra. Shank meets with Cassandra at which point a flashback shows that as Cassandra was about to kill Eva with her katana, Shank stopped her, slicing the right of her face and leaving a large scar. He kills Cassandra and escapes the club. In a nearby bar he encounters a man from the Venom gang named Mello (voiced by Eric Reidman) who has information. The player learns through another flashback that Shank used to be part of a cartel mob ruled by a man named Cesar. However, when Cesar asked Shank to kill Eva as a test of loyalty, Shank refused and Cesar ordered his top men to track down and kill them both. The two enter a club where Mello calls out Denny,and leaves the two to fight. Shank beats Denny,ripping the chains from his nipples and beating him into the ground with them. Shank chases after Mello,who calls for backup. After fighting through the reinforcements,he corners Mello,who begs for his life.
He soon catches up with him, severs his left arm and tells him to send Angelo the message that he's coming. Shank follows the trail of blood left by Mello which leads to a church. At the church Shank has another flashback, which shows that Angelo lit Shank's house on fire, ensuring Eva could not be saved. As Shank fights through the church, Angelo attacks him with a rocket launcher. Shank battles him, gaining the upper hand, but Angelo fires a rocket causing a church bell to fall on Shank, knocking him unconscious. He wakes up strapped to an electric chair, face to face with Cesar. After Cesar leaves Shank frees himself, then ties Angelo to the chair and electrocutes him.
Shank pursues Cesar to his villa, fighting through his guards and new bodyguard named Toro. Shank shoves a grenade in his mouth and shoots it,blowing Toro's head off. Shank reaches Cesar's room,where the final fight begins. As they fight, more of his past is revealed. Shank would have obeyed the order to kill Eva, but upon arriving Eva revealed that she was carrying his child. Shank explains that Cesar had always taught him the importance of family and so he did not kill her. Cesar replies that if he had known this things could have gone differently. As the fight nears its end, Shank is stabbed and shot multiple times in the chest. Despite this, he still manages to kill Cesar,headbutting and slicing him up. Once he is dead,Shank closes his eyes and leaves. The game ends as Shank walks towards the sunset, with his revenge fulfilled.
Gameplay[]
Shank is a side-scrolling beat 'em up with a comic book art style. In the game the player controls Shank, an ex-mob hitman. The game features three main types of weaponry: a pair of knives, heavy melee weapons (the starting one is a chainsaw) and firearms (the starting one is a pair of pistols). Each weapon is assigned to a controller button, and the attacks can be combined to perform various combos. The player can collect temporary-use weaponry from fallen enemies, such as machine guns, rifles and hand grenades.
Shank has other attacks such as multiple grapple attacks, throw enemies, and is able to perform a pounce maneuver, in which he jumps in the air and lands on a nearby enemy. Some acrobatic abilities can also be performed, such as swinging from lampposts or other tall structures, and running along the front of things such as billboards. On-screen enemies each have a health bar that displays on the player's HUD, akin to Final Fight.
Shank features a cooperative campaign designed to be played locally, which is a prequel to the single-player campaign. The multiplayer allows players to play as Shank and his partner-in-crime named Falcone. In this mode players are often required to work as a team to accomplish objectives, such as defeating level bosses. Players can combine moves for special attacks with the characters performing together. Also available is the ability to revive a fallen teammate should they die in combat.
Development & Marketing[]
Development for Shank began in January 2009. The idea for the game was created by Jeff Agala and Klei Entertainment CEO Jamie Cheng. Cheng described it as an "ode to Double Dragon with a Tarantino film feel to it." The story was written by God of War co-creator Marianne Krawczyk. Character designs were first created as paper drawings before being recreated via computer. Agala served as the game's creative director and was responsible for the primary design of the characters. Klei Entertainment artist Meghan Shaw was responsible for conceptualizing the level design for the game. The team used a combination of level and effects tools along with a custom flash pipeline for the animators to build assets in. The majority of the character animation was done by artist Aaron Bouthillier. The animation team was composed mainly of cartoon animators, making the flash asset pipeline more intuitive and production faster. Lighting in the game is also dynamic, with characters becoming darker when away from light sources, or appearing as silhouettes against a sunset background. The art style was influenced by Golden Age comics, Saturday morning cartoons and graphic novels.
The game was publicly announced at Penny Arcade Expo on September 4, 2009. On August 5, 2010, Klei Entertainment announced that they would release Shank original soundtrack for free to download on their official website, if 1,500 people joined their community on Facebook. They reached their goal in three hours. Subsequently, the full soundtrack was remastered to be "suitable for consumption" and released free of charge on August 23, 2010. As a cross promotion for the game, the titular character from DeathSpank is available as one of Shank's alternate costumes.
Reception[]
Shank received mixed reviews from critics, but generally positive reception overall. The PlayStation 3 version holds a score of 75.86% at GameRankings, while the PC version holds a score of 76.33% and the Xbox 360 version a 75.11%. Metacritic reports similar scores, with the PlayStation 3 version averaging 75/100, the PC version 74/100, and the Xbox 360 version averaging 71/100.
Reviewers were universal in praising the game's art style. 1UP.com's Scott Sharkey called it "gorgeously, fluidly animated, in both its cut-scenes and within the actual gameplay." Joystiq's Justin McElroy stated "animations are so smooth between attacks that you scarcely get to enjoy snuffing out one human life before you're on to stabbing the next soon-to-be-ghost." Tom Mc Shea of GameSpot agreed, adding "colorful visuals and well-crafted cutscenes add a lot to the experience." Mc Shea also praised the cooperative campaign, stating it was the best aspect of the game. Sharkey further praised the cooperative campaign for its inclusion of a separate story, complete with cutscenes.
The game's gore and graphic display received mixed reception among critics. GamesRadar's Carolyn Gudmundson called it "embarrassing attempt at 'Mature' rating." McElroy was more forgiving, stating that the blood and gore has "a great Americanime, Samurai Jack-esque style that makes the murder look cool but never so real that you wonder about the families of the people you're beating to death." Sharkey expressed approval, stating Shank is "bloody, violent, adolescently indulgent, and absolutely beautiful in execution." Shea stated it is "a savage game that revels in the brutality of street fighting." A review by GameTrailers called Shank "a savage Saturday morning cartoon filled with blood, boobs and Berettas."
While some reviewers gave high marks for the game's control scheme and responsiveness, others expressed frustration with the same issues. Sharkey lauded the controls, saying they were "split-second responsive even with the absurd amount of lovingly rendered action happening on screen." Mc Shea criticized the controls, stating that they were inconsistent and did not respond at given times. Gudmundson echoed these comments, citing similar control issues. IGN's Arthur Gies was critical of the short three-hour campaign. GameTrailers' review likened the game to a cartoon series, then called it a "short season, [...] one that you can finish in a single sitting."
Over 9,200 units were sold on the Xbox 360 in the first week after the game's release, and in August 2010 alone Shank sold 41,000 units on the Xbox 360. It also remained in the top 20 Xbox Live Arcade games for the month of September 2010. The game won the Canadian Game Development Talent Awards' "Animator of the Year" award for Aaron Bouthillier, and was also nominated for the 2010 Independent Games Festival's award for "Excellence in Visual Arts" and the Canadian Game Development Talent Awards' "Visual Artist of the Year" (for Jeff Agala).
Trivia[]
- The game's combo system is often described as the 2D version of the classic game God of War or Devil May Cry.
System Requirements for PC[]
Minimum Requirement | Recommended Requirements | Intel CPU |
Pentium 4 1.7GHz |
Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86GHz | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
AMD CPU | Athlon XP 1600+ | Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4600+ | |||
Nvidia GPU | GeForce 6800 XT | GeForce GT 230 | |||
AMD GPU | Radeon HD 3650 | Radeon X1800 Series 256MB | |||
RAM | 1 GB | 1 GB | |||
OS | Windows XP 32 | Windows XP 32 | |||
Direct X | Direct X 9 | Direct X 9 | |||
HDD Space | 3.5 GB | 3.5 |